FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 23, 1908. 
816 
of canvas and—well, lie lias departed, but it is 
with us still, and should you hear of any one 
wanting a really nice seaside house this sum¬ 
mer, refer them, please, Mr. Editor, to 
Starlight. 
A Boy's Surprise. 
lid it or Forest and Stream: 
1 was just eighteen years old when 1 tackled 
my first wildcat. 1 had the opinion then, and 
had often been heard to express it. that I could 
whip my weight in wildcats any day; but that 
was forty-one years ago, and in that length of 
time a man’s opinions change. 
Our old pioneer home in western Illinois was 
only a quarter of a mile from the timber, where 
the land was rough and rocky, and it was in this 
timber that I took my first lessons with the old 
Kentucky rifle and hunted for game of all kinds, 
At the time of which I am speaking I owned 
a dog, called Watch, who was my constant 
companion, and who had never up to that time 
met his match. So that with the old long 
rifle, the dog, and such a good opinion of my 
own fighting qualities, 1 was not a bit frightened 
when 1 ran afoul of my first wildcat. I found 
him in an oak tree, at what we called the stone 
quarry; the quarry had never been worked to 
any extent, but the stone lay in ledges, of which 
there were four or five, and on each ledge there 
was five or six feet of smooth and level surface. 
Then it was four or five feet of a drop to the 
next lodge, and so on down. The oak tree in 
which the cat had taken refuge grew at top of 
the highest ledge, and when standing upon that 
ledge 1 was within thirty feet of the cat, which 
was on a limb directly over the ledge on which 
I stood. 
Making sure that Watch saw the cat, and was 
ready for business, I pulled up the old Ken¬ 
tucky, took aim at the place where his heart 
ought to have been, and blazed away. The cat 
went up into the air, and came down directly 
upon old Watch, and I chuckled to think what 
would happen to that cat when Watch got a 
grab at him. But for some unaccountable rea¬ 
son Watch failed to get his hold, was knocked 
head over heels, and then the cat came my 
way, striking me on the left breast and shoulder, 
knocking me clear off that ledge and down upon 
the next one, the cat going over with me and 
disappearing in a hole in the rocks. 
As it was getting dusk, I went home and re¬ 
lumed in the morning with my uncle, prepared 
to dig out the cat, but Watch sniffed the hole 
and then lay down, losing all interest in the cat. 
It was but a few minutes’ work to dig him out, 
and he was stone dead. 
A. D. McCandless. 
Wild Game Near the City. 
Rrewer, Maine. May 1 2 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: To-day, while riding, a fox with a 
“snowshoe” rabbit in his mouth crossed just in 
front of the horse. Last week a huge moose 
came through the fields not over twelve miles 
east of Bangor, and T know of several deer not 
over eight miles off. Manly Hardy. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
(jiiv newsdealer on order. Ash your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
Recent Publications. 
"Big-Game Shooting on the Equator.” By 
F. A. Dickinson, F.R.G.S. 285 pages, 77 
illustrations from photographs. Cloth, $4.00. 
New York and London, John Lane Co. 
While this is a chronicle of sport amidst the 
big game, Captain Dickinson has made it also 
a manual for other hunters who propose going 
to the same or similar regions, and to this end 
gives comprehensive instructions ' as to outfits 
and much data of apparent value. 
He says ‘‘East Africa is a paradise in more 
than one sense of the word. The quantity of 
game in certain parts, easily reached, is absurd. ' 
lie did not believe stories of the game to be 
seen from the coaches of the Uganda railway, 
but now says, ‘‘if you don’t believe it, go and 
see for yourself.” Some parts are a veritable 
paradise from the scenery and vegetation point 
of view, while game is abundant; in others game 
is so plentiful that the fine scenery is incidental. 
Captain Dickinson gives no little wise advice 
on gun-bearers and other native help, which arc 
difficult to obtain in Somaliland. He follows 
with interesting accounts of hunting all of the 
big game mammals, and the lesser ones and 
wildfowl as well. Altogether the volume is a 
valuable one, and interesting throughout. The 
half-tone reproductions from photographs are 
unusually good. 
“Angling Done Here.” By W. Carter Platts. 
London, Jarrold & Sons. 
Somewhat on the order of a more ancient but 
no less veracious series of tales is this effort of 
Mr. Platts, who has already amused Britishers 
with his “Chiefly Uncle Parker” and “A Few 
Smiles.” The book is made up of eleven chap¬ 
ters, entitled “Rigging Up the Tackle,” “First 
Cast” and so on to the end. The scene is a 
country inn where a company of anglers relate 
their fishing experiences, humorous in the main, 
and pleasing withal. Mention of one of them, 
typical of the rest, will suffice. It happened that 
several anglers were discussing carp, and the 
impossibility of cooking it so that it might be 
eaten, when one of them said that if they would 
dine with him, he would prove them to be mis¬ 
taken. They accepted, and their host was as¬ 
sured they had never eaten any fish so delicious; 
but a day or two later they met him again and 
he apologized for the stupidity of his cook who, 
he said, had forgotten to put the carp in with 
the “fixings.” 
“Matthew Porter.” By Gamaliel Bradford, Jr. 
Cloth, 419 pages. Boston, L. C. Page & Co. 
A stirring novel relating to the contest for 
the governorship of Massachusetts. It purports 
to show how the hero, through his honesty, in¬ 
tegrity and great charm of manner, won over 
both his political friends and enemies. One of 
the women of Boston’s old aristocracy, urged 
by bis enemies to draw him into her circle of 
friends and thus discredit him and his reform 
ideas with his party, is instead convinced by him 
and becomes his chief aid in the campaign in 
which he wins the governorship. 
Books Received: In Wildest Africa, by C G. 
Shillings: Harpers. Sunshine and Sport in 
Florida; by F. G. Aflalo; Jacobs. Newfound¬ 
land and its Untrodden Ways; by J. G. Millais; 
Longmans, Green & Co. The Huntsman in the 
South, by Alexander Hunter, Neale. Hunting 
Trips in North America, by F. C. Selous; Scrib¬ 
ners. The Way of the Woods, by Edward 
Brcck; Putnams. The story of the Guides, by 
Col. C. J. Younghusband; London, the Macmil¬ 
lan Company. Fishes, by David Starr Jordan; 
Henry Holt & Co. The Life of the Salmon, 
by W. L. Calderwood; London, Arnold. Favor¬ 
ite Fish and Fishing, by Dr. J. A. Henshall; 
Outing Publishing Company. King Spruce, by 
Holman Day; Harpers. The Barrier, by Rex 
Beach; Harpers. Captain Love, by Theodore 
Roberts; L. C. Page & Co. In the Land of the 
Mosques and Minarets, by Francis Miltoun; L. 
C. Page & Co. Angling Done Here, by W. 
Carter Platts; London, Jarrold & Sons. Dry- 
Fly Fishing for Trout and Grayling, by Red 
Quill; London, Horace Cox. Big Game at Sea, 
by Charles Frederick Holder; Outing Publish¬ 
ing Company. 
Pennsylvania Grouse Outlook. 
Susquehanna County, Pa„ May 5 .—Editor 
Forest and Stream: I had not forgotten your re¬ 
quest for another report on the prospects for 
grouse, but at the time suggested, February, I 
had been through the covers but little and was 
not prepared to give any reliable information. 
But later I have been much in the woods, log¬ 
ging, “sapping,” etc., and my observations justify 
a much more optimistic view than at the close 
of the shooting season. I am now well satis¬ 
fied that there are old birds aplenty to stock 
the covers sufficiently for good sport another 
fall, should the hatching season be favorable. 
So far the spring has been cold and wet, and 
as I write an extreme rainstorm is raging. But 
no young birds will be hatched for some time 
yet, and later we may look for more favorable 
weather. 
The old birds wintered well. Their natural 
enemies were apparently few in numbers, and 
I am confident that very few met death during 
the winter from any cause. Up to February 
the winter was unusually mild, and, although 
some extremely low temperatures were re¬ 
corded later, no bad storms occurred to produce 
disaster among them. Of the many I have seen 
since spring opened, all seemed to be remark¬ 
ably strong, plump birds, and I shall look for 
them to give a good account of themselves by 
rearing abundant broods. Bon Ami. 
Caught With Collection of Birds. 
San Francisco, Cal., May 8 .— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Charles M. Harris, of New York 
who claims to be a representative of the Roth¬ 
schilds of London, was arrested a few days age 
in Lake county by Deputies A. F. Lea and A. M 
Fairfield of the Fish Commission for illegally 
killing birds. Lea and Fairfield located hi: 
scene of operations and found in his possessior 
all varieties of California birds, from humming 
birds to quail; also some tree squirrels. Justici 
Brulen, of Lakeport. fined him $150. The bird: 
were sent to the office of the Fish Commissior 
and donated by it to the Academy of Science: 
in this city, which is greatly in need of them 
owing to the complete loss of the museum for 
merly connected with that institution in th< 
Academy of Science building. A. P. B. 
